News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
The struggle to agree new multilateral disciplines on fisheries subsidies within the WTO is continuing apace, with plenty of negotiating activity – and precious little consensus to show for it so far. However, Geneva insiders do detect some signs of slow progress as the talks enter their twentieth year since …
Ahead of the last General Council meeting of the year – the agenda of which is now finally out -, US Ambassador to the WTO Dennis Shea, who represented the Trump administration in Geneva and oversaw the blockage of the Appellate Body, made a farewell speech as he prepares to …
Hong Kong contests US ‘China’ label for its goods exports Hong Kong has filed a dispute against a new United States rule that obliges goods exports from Hong Kong to be labelled as coming from ‘China’. Hong Kong, a WTO member, is a separate customs territory and nominally a different …
Welcome back to our WTO Corner column for regular updates on trade diplomacy in Geneva. Panel gives China a full win in Section 301 tariff case The majority of WTO law experts would have said this case was a no-brainer. The panellists appointed to judge on the matter thought so …
India has made history (of sorts) by becoming the first country to invoke a ‘peace clause’ on agricultural subsidies agreed at a World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in 2013. Officials in Geneva told a meeting of the WTO’s committee on agriculture this week that New Delhi was claiming immunity from …
Negotiations at the World Trade Organization over disciplines on subsidies to the fisheries sector have been put on pause – but because of disruption caused by COVID-19, rather than any collapse in the negotiations themselves. The long-running negotiations have reached a sensitive phase, with the first draft of a final …
International negotiators are doing their level best to keep the momentum going in their quest to reach a deal to curb fisheries subsidies this year – despite the havoc currently being wrought by Covid-19. The talks had originally been driven by a political imperative to reach a deal at the …
The 12th World Trade Organization ministerial conference has been cancelled at the request of the Kazakhstan hosts, due to the Corona virus. So what comes next?
Negotiations over global curbs on harmful subsidies to the fishing industry have reached a critical phase, with the first draft of a possible final agreement due to be tabled in the next couple of weeks. Despite continuing divisions between the main countries involved as to what form any agreement should …
World Trade Organization members took a series of small decisions at a still-ongoing General Council meeting in Geneva this week. Ambassadors also heard new proposals for change in the WTO by or under the leadership of the United States. Wide gaps among WTO countries remain on fundamental issues ahead of …
